


minute by minute

by couldaughter



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-06
Updated: 2012-10-06
Packaged: 2017-11-15 18:51:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/couldaughter/pseuds/couldaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amelia Pond keeps time to a beat only she can hear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	minute by minute

_tick, tock_

Amelia Pond keeps time to a beat only she can hear, a constant tick tock that stays with her and counts out seconds infinitely more accurately than any mechanism humankind could make.

When she is ten, she smashes her bedroom clock and refuses a replacement.

At seven, she finds an old fobwatch in the garden shed. The ticking is louder the closer she gets.

She keeps it as close as she can, in a pocket or hung round her neck, but she never opens it.

_tick, tock_

When she is an age, she invents a friend from a far off planet, a raggedy man with a bow tie and an unfortunate taste in hats.

At that age plus indeterminate time, she makes a new friend, this time totally corporeal. She calls him Roranicus, sometimes - she is never sure why but it fits who he will be.

He's sweet, and he plays with her when she asks, her as the raggedy doctor and him as another one, because Amelia sees no reason why there shouldn't be two. Blinovitch Limitations don't matter one bit when you're having fun.

_tick, tock_

At 12, her tests are almost always marked with a 'see me after class', no matter how hard Amelia tries to use only currently acknowledged science.

When she is nine, she discovers string theory, quantum, and figures out the shape of universe all in the fortnight Rory is in France with his aunt and uncle.

(She would have finished sooner, but Aunt Sharon kept making her do boring stuff like eat vegetables and help her pick out a new lamp to replace the one Amelia and Rory broke defeating the zygon invasion the week before.)

She never admits in that fortnight that the slow passage of time is even less bearable when Rory isn't there to distract her.

_tick, tock_

There is a crack in her bedroom wall. It's scary, but not so much that Amelia wants it gone. No, this thing is just spooky enough to poke at whenever she's bored.

Which she constantly is. Some days she is a ball of nervous energy, twitching with the urge to go out and do something, and others she can feel the weight of the universe resting on her, making it almost too big an effort to breathe.

_tick, tock_

When she is fifteen, she realises Rory likes her. Like, likes her likes her. He looks at her, and at last she spots the longing in his eyes.

It's a little stunning, really. Rory's never seemed that interested in anyone.

She doesn't know what to do with this information, so she ignores it. After all, she's got a while to figure it out.

At 14, she takes up cross country. It seems like the thing to do - after a while, it feels like she's been running all her life. Rory joins as well, and they spend whole afternoons running side by side through the woods outside Leadworth, leaping over felled trees and sinking into a comfortable silence that says more than it should.

_tick, tock_

Amelia Pond is a fairytale, but she is not the princess. She is the swashbuckling hero, the swoon worthy saviour, and she knows what she wants.

When she is seventeen, she backs Rory into a corner and asks if he wants to get dinner with her.

She has to clarify she means it like a date. Rory was never very confident in his looks, which Amelia thinks is a shame.

He accepts, enthusiastically.

Rory isn't a princess either.

When they are 19, the crack in her bedroom wall splits open, and the ticking rises in volume.

Prisoner Zero has escaped, and the Atraxi are going to blow up the planet.

Amelia can't help but think she's been in world threatening situations before, but she can't remember why.

_tick, tock_

She has twenty minutes to save the world. The duck pond has no ducks in it. Rory's coma patients are both awake and sleeping.

She can't figure out which of them is the weirdest thing that's happened today.

Amelia Pond can save the world, because Amelia Pond can choose to be a superhero.

She reaches into a pocket almost unconciously, and pulls out her watch.

It's weird calling something a watch when it doesn't tell the time.

(But it does watch over her, appropriately.)

Rory looks at her worriedly. He's good at the worried face, the slightly downturned lips, the adorably furrowed brow. Amelia would kiss him right there if she wasn't busy staring at the watch.

She opens it, feels the huon energy surround her, the light dancing across her vision in an imitation of stars, and then she screams.

Amelia can feel her neurons stretching, and suddenly it all revolves into place. She's a time lord - everything makes sense.

She blinks, and Rory is looking down at her, his face even more worried than it was before.

Amelia is fine though - more fine than she's ever been before, really.

Together, they save the world, and Amelia makes sure the Atraxi never come back.

(She doesn't change outfits though. Saving the world in a miniskirt is way more satisfying than doing it in a bow tie.)

_tick, tock_

She feels a tug in her brain, which on any other day would've been a weird sensation but today feels just right. She grabs Rory's hand and drags him away, and she finds her TARDIS in the back garden.

Stupid perception filter.

Still, it's here now and Amelia is itching to finally shrug off this boring linear timestream and leave this planet for a while.

(Not for too long though. She really does love it, just like her other incarnations.)

She turns from the console just in time to see Rory close the door behind him.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She smiles.

And Rory, wonderful Rory, can't help but smile back. "Yeah, it really is."

Amelia flicks a few more switches and pulls the wibbly lever.

"So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will... where d'you wanna start?"

It's a little hilarious watching him adjust to the fact that his girlfriend has a time machine. "Anywhere's fine, really. We could go on that road trip we've been planning." They grin at each other. For a few seconds, everything is in balance.

Then the TARDIS tips sideways, and everything is back to how it should be.

Living life off kilter is a lot more fun.


End file.
